Monday in Nature Weekly Photo April 28, 2014

[Laura Weishaupt]

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<p ><strong >Basic Guidelines</strong>: Nature based subject matter. Please, declare captive subjects. Keep your image at/under 700 pixels on the long axis for in-line viewing and try to keep file size under 300kb. Note that this includes photos hosted off-site at Flicker, Photobucket, your own site, etc. Do you have a series of great shots to compliment your post? Please, tell us where they are so we can see them.</p>

<p ><em >In the strictest sense, nature photography should not include hand of man elements. Try to minimize man made features, keep the focus on nature, and let common sense be your guide. <strong >Let's make this a true Photo of the Week and only post 1 image per week.</strong></em></p>

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<p>Good Morning,<br>

I hope you've all had a great week enjoying the wonders of nature, both great and small.</p>

<p>As soon as <em>Claytonia virginica</em> come out of the ground I start looking, and sure enough, the nemesis appears. <em>Puccinia mariae-wilsoniae</em>, aka Claytonia Rust, erupts and continues on it's complicated lifecycle. Classifications of rusts have changed a lot in the last 3 editions of "The Dictionary of the Fungi". Now there are 14 families and 7,798 spp. in the Puncciniales. Rusts wreck host specific havoc on everything from agricultural crops to pretty little flowers. I'll revisit this one, and many others, trying to see and photograph different structures and spore types.</p>

<p>Hope you all have an enjoyable day. No rusty gears around here, just beautiful images for Monday in Nature.</p><div></div>

[cegeiss]

<p>No rust, just another sign of spring: the trout lilies are everywhere. Right now it's like walking through a carpet of green and yellow.</p><div></div>

[jordan2240]

<p>Captured this chase at the nearby pond during perfect evening light.</p><div></div>

[mbkissel]

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[Rick Bortnick]

<p>Pussy willow flowers</p><div></div>

[User_2019667]

<p>Strawberries</p><div></div>

[rarmstrong]

<p>The snow is finally melting in upper Michigan, and the Sandhill Cranes are returning to nest...</p><div></div>

[Bill J Boyd]

<p>Hummingbird near entrance to Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center. </p><div></div>

[gordonjb]

<p>Still snow on the ground and ice on the lakes but another week and it will be gone. In the meantime another dive photo from a recent trip. </p><div></div>

[daniel_harris]

<p>I finally had some time off and went to visit my daughter in Oregon. We spent a couple of days on the Oregon Coast. I took a few shots of a juvenile seagull on a rail when an adult swooped in and chased the youngster off and then proceeded to strut about for me, seemingly quite proud of what he had just done.</p><div></div>

[hanappa]

<p>From the Cactus Garden at the Mitchell Lake Audubon Center. (I did see birds there as well, of course, but their cactus garden was in full bloom, and it was a much better match for my 60mm macro than the birds were for my 28-300).</p><div></div>

[kts]

<p>bath time</p><div></div>

[birdied]

<p>Wonderful shots so far today ! Mark love the snowy. Gordon B beautiful shot. Thom love the bathing Robin.<br>

Mine is Ruby Throated Humminbird </p>

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[chansonbleu]

<p>Stopped at the Butterfly Conservatory in Deerfield Mass. yesterday.</p><div></div>

[paul_de_ley]

<p>Down here in SoCal the bullies of the blackbird jungle are back to their loud and flashy spring tricks:</p>

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[Gup]

<p>Our two weeks of spring is finally upon us. The melted snow has left us with temporary lakes of standing water soon to be breeding grounds for zillions of mosquitoes that will in turn provide nourishment for millions of new hatchlings. I love canoeing in the forest.</p><div></div>

[colin carron]

<p>Bluebells are springing up in the shady bits of the woods. </p><div></div>

[dcstep]

<p><strong>Mother Great Horned Owl</strong></p>

<p><a title="Mom by David Stephens, on Flickr" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/dcstep/13918007651"><img src="https://farm8.staticflickr.com/7010/13918007651_415bccc3b6_c.jpg" alt="Mom" width="800" height="533" /></a></p>

[robert100]

Twenty three minutes ago, 0931 hrs pacific apr28, off my back deck. Five of em are soaring the updrafts on

the mountain slope above my place enjoying the winds and looking for breakfast. I saw the shadows

across the yard, stepped out with the camera and the movement in the yard brought one of em down to

see if I was edible. They've picked off some squirrels this spring out in the yard area, the area is active with

wild hares they're hunting, and they've tried for little 19 year old Harley-the-art-cat a couple of times but

have missed so far. There'll be a herd of em flying here all summer, but In two or three weeks as the snow

melts, a number of em will move further up island and into the higher central mountains. There were two does wandered through the yard a couple of days ago of which one had a broken left foreleg, she was walking on it, quite swollen and tender, odds are she'll be taken by a Cougar and some of the leftovers will go to these guys as well.<div></div>

[JDMvW]

<p>I can attest that this image was taken during a week. Maybe not this week, but a week, nonetheless.</p><div></div>

[MarcelRomviel]

<p>A Ladybug having dinner from me:</p><div></div>

[Uhooru]

<p>Last Saturday, beautiful windy day.. <img src="http://d6d2h4gfvy8t8.cloudfront.net/17747473-lg.jpg" alt="" /></p>

[User_6502147]

<p>Ladybug taking a break.</p><div></div>

[bing_huey1]

<p>Great images so far. I will follow with another fungus, the black elfin saddle, Helvella lacunosa. Not all in Spring are brightly colorful.</p><div></div>

[jonathan_parkhouse1]

<p>This is a weevil I saw whilst on Brownsea Island, Dorset, a few days ago. Still haven't worked out which species though.</p><div></div>